Adaptation (38 page)

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” her mom said.

“What else could it be?” Julian asked. “We don’t have the technology for a ship like that. The way it moved was insane.”

“The technology is pretty advanced,” her dad said from the front passenger seat. “But that’s still being analyzed by aviation experts.”

“Anyway,” her mom said, “after Julian called me to say he saw you on this video, I asked your father if he could help find out if the video was genuine.”

“I contacted an expert I’ve worked with in the past, and they determined that it wasn’t a hoax,” her dad said.

“Then I contacted Senator Michaelson again and told her about the video,” her mom said. “I also sent it to CNN.”

Reese’s eyes widened. “You sent it to CNN?”

“It never would have made as much of an impact on Julian’s website—”

“It’s not really
my
website—”

“—as it did on CNN. Your father’s expert went on the air to explain how he had determined its authenticity, and then I went on the air along with your father and David’s parents to identify the two of you and Amber, and to demand that the government explain what was happening in the video.”

“When did you do this?” Reese asked.

“It aired on CNN four days ago, on Monday,” her mom said. “Right afterward, Senator Michaelson tried a different angle in getting information on your whereabouts. She’s on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and she eventually took this to the Secretary of Defense and had a meeting with him yesterday. This morning she called me and said that you and David were coming back today.”

The police lights ahead flickered, as blue as the emergency lights in the bunker. Something was still unexplained, though. “Who uploaded the video?” Reese asked.

“Nobody knows,” Julian said. “That’s the big mystery. I think somebody was working on the inside like a double agent.”

“That’s just speculation,” her mom said.

“There’s been a
lot
of speculation,” her dad said.

“The media went crazy over the video,” Julian said. “Not only do you have a genuine image of a spaceship landing, you have the revelation that Area 51 actually exists—”

“The government is still denying that’s where the video was shot,” her dad said.

“It was totally Area 51,” Julian insisted. “And then you’ve got you and David, two ordinary high school students, running out of Area 51 toward a spaceship, and then this mysterious chick Amber basically throws herself in the line of fire to prevent you from getting shot, and—”

“Wait,” Reese interrupted, staring at him. “She did what?”

“It’s the big story,” Julian said, as if he were pitching a feature to their journalism teacher. “The cable channels, the news sites, they all think Amber is the hero, blocking the bullet from hitting you.” Julian paused, giving her a sympathetic look. “They all want to know who she is and why she saved you.”

Reese’s stomach fell. “Did you tell them anything?” She had never expected she might be outed in the national media.

But Julian shook his head just slightly. “Only her name.”

“It’s up to you if you want to say anything more, honey,” her mom said. “The press hasn’t been able to find out much about her. She was enrolled as a student at Winthrop Academy in
Massachusetts and at the Hunter Glen School in Arizona, but her parents haven’t come forward.”

Reese turned her head to look out the window, drawing in a shallow breath. She tried to remember what exactly had happened that day, but all she could recall was the impact of Amber’s body on hers, pushing her onto the ground. Then the pain that tore through her abdomen as if someone had reached inside and ripped out her guts. She hadn’t known where the gunshot came from. She hadn’t known Amber had taken the bullet for her. But now all she could think of were Julian’s words:
They all think Amber is the hero.

There was a mob of reporters outside the house in
Noe Valley. Two television-station vans were parked on the street, and cameras flashed as Julian, Reese, and her parents climbed out of their car. David and his family were right behind them, and Reese tried to shield herself from the flurry of questions tossed at them as she hurried up the steps to the house. Her mom unlocked the door, and then they all crowded inside, shutting out the press.

“They’re quite aggressive, aren’t they?” David’s mom, Grace, observed.

“We’ll give them a statement later tonight, once we’ve talked things over,” Reese’s dad said.

Reese slipped into the living room while her mom asked David’s parents if they wanted anything to drink. The coffee
table and couch were strewn with empty takeout containers and newspapers, as if her mom had been besieged here for weeks. Reese picked up one of the papers as she heard her mom and the others head down the hall to the kitchen. It was Tuesday’s front page, and a giant black-and-white photograph—slightly grainy as if it had come from a security camera—took up the entire top half. It showed a spacecraft lifting off from the rocky desert, its landing gear still not fully retracted. A smaller inset photo focused on three people: one lying on her back on the ground, and two others crouched over her. With a shock, Reese recognized David, Amber, and herself.

David had followed her into the living room, and he leaned over her shoulder to look at the newspaper. His closeness made her unexpectedly uncomfortable, and she handed him the paper and moved away to sit on the edge of the couch. He gave her a short, questioning look, but she busied herself by collecting the empty takeout containers. Why did she suddenly feel shy around him?

“My parents told me about what happened,” he said. “Did yours?”

“Yeah,” she said. She stacked the containers on the end table and started to gather together the newspapers.

David sat down beside her and dropped a hand on her knee. His touch made her stiffen, and he pulled away. She flushed. What was wrong with her? After all they had gone through, she was still acting like a jerk. She was relieved when Julian came into the living room and sat down in the armchair. “Is that the picture?” he asked.

“Yeah,” David said, passing it to Julian. “My parents said you played a big role in getting us out of there.”

Julian shrugged, but he was obviously pleased. “Nah. I just saw the video and called Reese’s mom.”

“Did you ever get anything from the video we shot at the warehouse?” David asked.

Julian shook his head. “It was too dark. I tried to lighten it up, but I couldn’t see much. The only thing I got was the license plate of that car, and I haven’t been able to look it up.”

“Oh my God, I almost forgot,” Reese exclaimed, dropping a pile of newspapers on the floor. She reached into her bra and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I didn’t want them to take it off me if we were searched today,” she said self-consciously. She spread out the paper on her knee; it was the first page from the report she had read in the avian lab.

“I totally forgot about that,” David said. “The pages I took must still be in my pants back at the hospital.”

“What is it?” Julian asked.

Reese passed the paper to him. “I think it’s connected to the June crashes.”

Julian’s eyes widened as he read. “No, I think this
is
the June crash.”

“We found a lab full of birds at—at Area 51,” Reese said. “That’s where that report came from.”

Her mom came into the living room with a tray full of teacups. She set it on the coffee table and asked, “What report?” David’s parents and sister came into the living room as well, and Reese’s father followed, carrying folding chairs.

“Reese lifted a top-secret document from Area 51,” Julian said.

Her mom frowned. “Let me see that.” She took the wrinkled
paper from Julian and scanned it. “I don’t understand. This is about birds.”

“They’re genetically altering birds with alien DNA,” Reese said. David’s sister, Chloe, sat down on the couch beside David, who scooted over to make room for her. His leg brushed against Reese’s. She forced herself to hold still.

“Alien DNA?” her mom said skeptically. “And who’s ‘they’?”

“Project Blue Base,” Reese answered.

“Shit, are you serious?” Julian cried. “Sorry,” he said to the assembled parents.

“What’s Project Blue Base?” her mom asked.

“It’s a classified defense project to create genetically enhanced soldiers. Super soldiers,” David explained. “That’s where they were holding us.”

“I thought you were being held at Area 51?” Grace said.

“Wait, start at the beginning,” Reese’s mom said, sitting in one of the folding chairs next to her ex-husband. “What does this paper mean?”

David’s father, Winston, held out his hand. “Let me take a look,” he said. “I’m not a geneticist, but I might be able to figure it out.”

“He’s a biochemist,” Grace said. “So modest.”

Winston read through the short document. “This is very odd,” he concluded. “It says that these birds are being genetically modified to make them more intelligent. But why? Do they need to train them for some reason? And what is this word, Imria?”

Reese felt David’s leg tighten, and his tension radiated throughout her whole body. She had known she would have to explain what had really been done to her at Project Plato, but
now that the moment had come, she wasn’t sure if she was ready. Would her parents even believe her?

Julian’s phone buzzed, and he pulled it from his pocket. “We have to turn on the TV,” he said. He lunged for the remote that was half-hidden behind the stack of takeout containers and switched on the television. It was already on CNN, and a silver-haired announcer was saying: “—going to a live feed from the White House in a couple of minutes. We’re told that President Randall will address the nation regarding the video footage containing the unidentified flying object.”

President Elizabeth Randall appeared unusually nervous as the camera opened onto a marble hall in the White House. Reese had never liked President Randall—she thought the woman was too much of a slick politician—but today she showed some rougher edges. Standing behind a podium decorated with the presidential seal and flanked by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the president’s hand shook slightly as she adjusted her glasses.

“My fellow Americans,” President Randall began, “I know that the events of the past couple of days have shaken many of you and caused some of you to question whether your own government has been keeping secrets. Well, this is an unprecedented situation, folks, and I’m going to cut through all the PR speak and tell it to you like it is—which is just what I promised you I would do when you elected me two years ago.”

“Bullshit,” Reese’s mom snapped.

The president looked gravely at the camera. “The truth is: Yes, your government has lied to you. It has been lying to you for
decades, because it believed that you were better off not knowing the truth. But as soon as I stepped into office, I began working to stop the lies. And today I’m going to tell you the truth.” She took a deep breath. “Yes, it’s true: We have been visited by extraterrestrials.”

“I can’t believe she said that,” Julian breathed, leaning forward.

“They first visited us in 1947, and some of that visit was leaked by mistake to the public and became popularly known as the Roswell Incident.” The president smiled self-deprecatingly. “But they’re not little green men, or gray aliens, as many conspiracy buffs believe. The people who visited us—” She paused dramatically. “There’s no other way to say it. They look like us. The people you saw in the video who were running into the spacecraft—those people were our extraterrestrial visitors.”

Reese already knew this, but hearing the president say the words out loud still made a chill run down her spine. She glanced at Julian to see how he took it; he was gaping at the television.

The president adjusted her glasses again, then tucked a strand of hair behind an ear. “Since 1947 the United States has been cooperating with these extraterrestrial visitors, who identify themselves as the Imria. We have set up a research agreement with them, exchanging scientific knowledge and developing a relationship. The United States government decided to keep this relationship classified because in 1947, the world was reeling from the aftermath of World War II, and we were fighting the rise of Communism. If I had been president then, I can promise you I wouldn’t have done the same thing.”

“Whatever,” Julian said. “She wouldn’t have made a statement if that video hadn’t been leaked. It forced her hand.”

“In recent days, it has become clear to me that the time for secrecy has passed,” the president continued. “In order to move forward into the future—a future in which interplanetary contact is no longer a thing of science fiction—you deserve to know who these Imria are. The release of the video earlier this week showed me that you are ready for the truth. But my fellow Americans, I am afraid that the truth is not entirely pretty. After the ship that you saw in the video lifted off, we have had no further contact from the Imria. At this point, we are alone, again, on our planet. So, I say this to the Imria: If you are watching, I invite you to make public contact with us. We will meet at a global summit. We will begin our relationship anew.” She paused. “And to my fellow Americans, I offer my heartfelt apologies. On behalf of all the administrations before mine that kept this secret from you: I am sorry. I hope we can move forward into a more truthful and open future.”